Factory Man
How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local - and Helped Save an American Town
Little, Brown and Company · Print & ebook · June 9, 2015
The instant New York Times bestseller about one man's battle to save hundreds of jobs by demonstrating the greatness of American business.
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- Who it’s for
- A clear-eyed account of one town's fight to stay local, with real-world stakes and room to.
- Genres
- Business Lives, Manufacturing Industry, Outsourcing
- Published
- Little, Brown and Company, June 9, 2015
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Start with this bookAbout this book
The instant New York Times bestseller about one man's battle to save hundreds of jobs by demonstrating the greatness of American business. The Bassett Furniture Company was once the world's biggest wood furniture manufacturer. Run by the same powerful Virginia family for generations, it was also the center of life in Bassett, Virginia. But beginning in the 1980s, the first waves of Asian competition hit, and ultimately Bassett was forced to send its production overseas.
Continue reading
One man fought back: John Bassett III, a shrewd and determined third-generation factory man, now chairman of Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Co, which employs more than 700 Virginians and has sales of more than $90 million. In Factory Man, Beth Macy brings to life Bassett's deeply personal furniture and family story, along with a host of characters from an industry that was as cutthroat as it was colorful. As she shows how he uses legal maneuvers, factory efficiencies, and sheer grit and cunning to save hundreds of jobs, she also reveals the truth about modern industry in America.
Local Stakes
A clear-eyed account of one town's fight to stay local, with real-world stakes and room to.
Come here for
- offshoring, local industry, and stubborn American manufacturing
- book-club conversation with a practical, lived-in edge
Expect
- nonfiction with industrial and rural texture
- steady, sustained reading rather than a quick skim
Where it sits
| Manufacturing Industry | 49% |
|---|---|
| Business Lives | 47% |
| Outsourcing | 38% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Business Lives
- Manufacturing Industry
- Outsourcing
- Authors
- Beth Macy
- Publisher
- Little, Brown and Company
- Published
- June 9, 2015
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Reading lane
- Business Lives
Around this book
- Here’s How an American Furniture Maker Battled Globalization, for His EmployeesAn essay from The World. This reported feature uses Macy’s book to explore how globalization affected furniture workers and towns, and why Bassett’s story matters.
- How a Factory Man Fought to Save His Furniture CompanyAn interview from NPR. Beth Macy discusses John Bassett’s fight to keep his furniture company operating and the wider human cost of the U.S. furniture industry’s decline.
- Local Characters: PW Talks with Beth MacyAn interview from Publishers Weekly. Macy explains the reporting and people behind the book, including its treatment of globalization, race, and the furniture-making communities.